The Washington Post said that Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written. Jodi Picoult said of this book, "I think (social issues are) the whole reason for fiction: to get readers to address a topic they might shy away from non-fictionally."
It's a powerful book. The three main characters are Ruth, a Yale educated African American nurse who is accused of killing a baby fathered by Turk, a white supremacist with swastika tattoos. Kennedy is Ruth's public defender/lawyer who is basically clueless about what she's getting herself into.
Believe it or not, all three of them end up doing small, great things.
I'm writing this on Thanksgiving eve and I'm feeling grateful for so many people in my life who don't seem to tire of doing good. But I am tired. I don't do things anymore that others can do or (this is enlightening) don't need to be done. But I can still do small, (hopefully) great things. One of the easiest is letting other people know when I see them doing small, great things. They're all around me.
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